team

discussion
guide

Creating Churches Unchurched People

Love to Attend

ANDY STANLEY

How to Use the

Team Discussion
Guide

This Team Discussion Guide is designed to help you and

your team (staff, elders, deacons, and/or key volunteers)
work through the book Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley. Andy raises some key issues relating to the purpose,
mission, and strategy of your church. The goal of this
guide is to help you process the many lessons Andy and
his team have learned as they continue to strive to create
churches unchurched people love to attend. The hope
is that these insights will be helpful to you as you seek
to optimize the influence your ministry is having on the
unchurched. We believe these ideas will inspire you to
take your ministry even deeper and wider.

book introduction
and section one

MY
STORY

1. Andy writes: Every church should be a church irreligious people love to attend (page 12). How do you
feel about that statement?

2. Do you think a survey like the one in Appendix A

could be helpful to your church?

3. When Andy started a new campus from an existing

church, he did not expect comparisons to happen
between the two campuses. Are comparisons happening between your church and another? How do
you think unhealthy comparisons can be prevented?

4. What can you learn from Andy and his father about
how to deal with conflicts in your church?

section two

OUR
STORY

Introduction and Chapter 3:

Words Matter
1. In your community, what are the usual answers to
the question, What is the church?

2. How do you and your team define church?

3. How has your understanding of ekklesia expanded

after reading this chapter?

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4. After Constantine (AD 313), how did the ekklesia

change and why?

5. How is the resistance to change that reformers such

as Huss, Tyndale, and Luther experienced similar to
the pushback you might experience if you tried to
make changes in your church? How is it different?

6. What questions should your team ask to discover

whether your gatherings are ekklesia or kirche? (See
the bulleted list on page 67.)

11

Chapter 4: Just As I Aint

1. Recall the Gay Pride Day story from this chapter (pages 70 72). How do you think your church
would respond in this situation?

2. What is the most important lesson to acknowledge in

regard to managing the tension between grace and
truth? (page 72)

3. How did Jesus exhibit unfair and inconsistent

behavior, even though he was full of grace and truth?

12

4. Andy talks about the glorious mess of grace and

truth at North Point (pages 78 83). How does your
church deal with those kinds of messes? Give examples.

5. What might open up to you if your church would

dare to manage the tension between grace and truth?

13

Chapter 5: Defying Gravity

1. Discuss the defining moment in Acts 15 at the
Jerusalem Council. What was the crucial issue?

2. Why would the Jews be offended and Gentiles perplexed about salvation issues in the early church?

3. How does a church disguise its intent to be a church

for unchurched people?

14

4. How might your church be making it difficult for

those who are turning to God?

5. Discuss: How do you think an unchurched visitor would describe his or her first exposure to your
church?

15

section three

GOING
DEEP

Introduction and Chapter 6:

My Big Discovery
1. How do you react to this idea: We dont believe
[discipleship] classes create mature believers. Classes
create smart believers? (page 101)

2. What does a mature believer look like? How does

your church grow those believers?

18

3. Andy writes: At its core, Christian ity is an invitation to reenter a relationship of trust with the Father
(page 105). How does the Bible support this? How
does your church support this?

4. What amazed Jesus? (page 106)

5. What are the five faith catalysts? Do you resonate

with them as ways God grows faith?

19

Chapter 7: Playing My Part

1. How would you describe in your own words the faith
catalyst practical teaching?

2. Discuss the statement: People are far more interested in what works than whats true (page 114).
If you agree, how could this influence the preaching
and teaching at your church?

3. Jesus played to people wanting to be blessed or happy.

Who does your church need to play to?

20

4. Has God ever met you in a life-changing way in your

private devotions?

5. How does your church encourage attendees to

develop private disciplines?

6. Discuss this statement: We are committed to involving as many people as possible, as young as possible,
as soon as possible (page 127), including non-members, even unbelievers. Would this pose any challenges at your church?

21

Chapter 8: From Out of Nowhere

1. How are the last two catalysts (providential relationships and pivotal circumstances) different from the
first three?

2. What two things define a providential relationship,

and how does your church leverage this catalyst?

3. How does your church increase the opportunities for

providential relationships to happen?

22

4. Andy defines pivotal circumstances as defining

moments that impact our faith, positively or negatively. How does your church leverage these defining
moments in order to grow peoples faith? Share some
examples.

23

section four

GOING
WIDE

Introduction and Chapter 9:

Creating Irresistible Environments
1. Can you identify with Andy and Sandras experience
visiting other churches? How have these experiences
convinced you that environment matters?

2. Discuss this statement: Time in erodes awareness

of (page 159). Is that true in your church?

3. Who is responsible for defining what an irresistible

environment means in your church?

26

4. How do you think first-time, unchurched guests

would describe your environments? Does your church
have a way of getting fresh eyes on your environments to judge what first impressions might be?

5. Discuss North Points process for creating engaging

presentations (pages 172 182). If you think that
process would benefit your church, how could you
implement it?

6. Do you agree that its helpful to intentionally contextualize the Bibles content? If so, in which areas of
ministry in your church would this be most beneficial?

27

Chapter 10: Rules of Engagement

1. What do you and your team define as the win for
Sunday morning?

2. Your current template is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently getting (page
201). Does your template lead to the win your
ministry hopes to achieve?

3. How can your church create common ground

for the churched and the unchurched in your
community?

28

4. Do you agree with Andys observations about the

Luke 15 text (pages 203 206)? Why or why not?

5. Andy presents and defines each segment of North

Points template in what they call the Rules of
Engagement. Which, if any, aspects of the template
would work in your ministry setting?

6. Should the gospel be the only thing that offends the

unchurched? What do the unchurched find offensive
in many of our churches?

29

Chapter 11: Double-Barrel Preaching

1. Do you agree with Andys premise that its possible to effectively engage the churched and the
unchurched with the same message? Discuss how
youre currently doing this and how you might be
able to do it better.

2. According to Andy, why do so many eighteen- to

twenty-five-year-olds drop out of church and who is
responsible for this? (See Discovery Zone on pages
230 231.) Do you agree? Does this ring true for
your church?

30

3. Andy writes: When people are convinced you want

something for them rather than something from
them, they are less likely to be offended when you
challenge them (page 235). Evaluate your church
against this standard.

4. Seven guidelines for preaching to the unchurched are

presented in this chapter. What is your reaction to
Give em permission not to believe . . . or obey?

5. What challenged you the most from the seven guidelines presented in this chapter? Which, if any, of these
guidelines do you think your church should adopt?
Discuss.

31

section five

BECOMING

DEEP
AND
WIDE

Introduction and Chapter 12:

Coming to Blows with the Status Quo
1. Leaders need to be agents creating a culture that
embraces rather than resists change. If you agree
with this statement, how would you begin to create
that culture in your church?

2. Consider these statements: Every innovation has

an expiration date (page 265) and We are foolish to assume our ideas are transgenerational (page
267). Are there innovations in your church that have
expired?

3. Identify how your church system illustrates this statement by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner: Any
system will unconsciously conspire to maintain the
status quo and prevent change (page 268).

34

4. Andy writes: The catalyst for introducing and facilitating change in the local church is a God-honoring,
mouthwatering, unambiguously clear vision (page
270). How is vision the key to bringing about
change?

5. If its not good to begin by asking what needs to be

changed, then how would you begin?

6. If you and your team agree that you will need to

make people discontent with where they are, are you
willing to tackle the resistance you will most likely
face? If so, how will you do it?

35

Chapter 13: Mission and Model

1. Discuss this statement: New ideas are good ideas
as long as they dont require anyone to actually do
anything new (page 278). Have you seen this to be
true in your church?

2. One of the primary reasons churches are empty is

because church leaders love their models more than
they love people (page 281). This is quite a bold
statement. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why
not? Incorporate into your discussion the relationship between your model and your mission.

3. Ask yourselves: What is our mission? Does our model

(the way we do things) advance or obstruct our
mission?

36

4. Discuss this adaptation by Andy of a statement by Jim

Collins: When a church fails to distinguish between
its current model and the mission to which it has been
called and mistakenly fossilizes around its model, that
church sets itself up for decline (page 284). Is your
church setting itself up for decline in any way?

5. Engage your leaders in a conversation around a list

of What is the best way? questions to determine the
weaknesses and strengths in your current programming (pages 289 290).

37

Chapter 14: Led to Lead

1. Do you see yourself and/or your team babysitting
a model of ministry of a previous generation? If so,
discuss specific areas where this is true.

2. What is the main point behind the story about Jesus

recruiting Paul and teaming him with Luke?

3. Are the job descriptions in your church aligned with

giftedness? Or are they in conflict? Give some
examples of both.

38

4. What do you celebrate in your church? What do you

measure?

5. Andy believes that asking the right questions will

make your ministry more effective. Of all the questions listed in this chapter (pages 302 304), which
ones would be best to ask in your church?

39

conclusion

WHAT
IF?

1. Read again the story about Barry and his baptism

(pages 307 309). Have there been What if?
moments in the story of your church? How is your
church preparing for the Barrys in your community?

2. What are you and your church praying for? Do your

prayers line up with the prayers in the book of Acts?

3. In The Parable of the Credit Card section, Andy

asks: What does your church obsess over? What is
your church preoccupied with? (page 315). Answer
these questions honestly, and discuss them as a team.

42

Notes

Notes

The Deep & Wide Team Discussion Guide is designed to help you and your
team process the many lessons learned by Andy Stanley and his team
as they continue to strive to create churches unchurched people love
to attend. These insights will be helpful to you as you seek to optimize
the influence your ministry is having on the unchurched. Andy writes,
Our goal is to create weekend experiences so compelling
and helpful that even the most skeptical individuals in our
community would walk away with every intention of
returning the following week with a friend!
If your team is more concerned with who you are reaching
than who you are keeping, Deep & Wide will be more than a book
you read; it will be a resource you come back to over and over!

For purcha se infor mation, including group

discount r ate s, visit w w w.D e e pa ndWide Book.com

I S B N 978 - 0 - 310 - 514 0 5 - 3